1. Statement of the Technical Field
The inventive arrangements relate to systems and methods for providing a rewards program for entertainment consumers. More particularly, the invention concerns systems and methods for providing a rewards program based on electronic acquisitions of displayed dynamic marks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the technical complexities involved, the convergence of digital media as displayed on a TV, or a video screen, and a wireless smart device such as a smartphone, has been virtually non-existent. Although there have been attempts to connect the two mediums each have their own serious limitations, and are simply not ideal, or practical. The limitations for optical based systems include, but are not limited to, requiring a very short distance from the video display to capture information, ambient light in the room in which the video display is being viewed can render the receiver unusable, variations in the video display output can render the receiver unusable, and the time it takes for the receiver to actually capture the information. Because of these, and other unreliable limitations, the user is likely to get frustrated and simply give up.
The limitations for Audio based systems include but are not limited to, the volume level and proximity to the audio transmitter, the quality of the audio output, background noise such as talking, music, or other sounds which can interfere with the receiver, and the time it takes for the receiver to actually capture the information. Because of these, and other unreliable limitations, the user is likely to get frustrated and simply give up.
A need has therefore been recognized in the art to provide a reliable and robust solution to the problem. The system preferably facilitates the convergence of video displayed information directly, quickly, and wirelessly, to all of the currently available, and future smart devices such as smartphones, tablets, wearable's such as watches, glasses and others not yet known to the market. Further, the solution should include a method for advertisers to engage their customers and maximize the response to their commercials by enabling viewers to acquire digital coupons and other incentive offers associated with the video broadcast commercial. There is also a need to provide new and different backend solutions for utilizing these devices and methods.